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Kurtág – Kafka Fragments

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Catalogue numberBIS-2175 SACD
Release date2015-08-10
Discs1
Orig. sample rate48000Hz
Total time58:08

One of the truly grand old men on the music scene today, György Kurtág composed his Kafka-Fragmente in the mid-1980s, and these forty settings of text fragments by Franz Kafka remain one of his most often-performed works. Although the cycle contains no single narrative thread and tells no coherent ‘tale’ it has become quite common to present it in staged versions – perhaps because of the hypnotic images that emerge in the texts, as well as in the music. Many of the movements are extremely brief; in the present recording 11 of the movements are less than half a minute long, and the shortest (Es zupfte mich jemand am Kleid / Someone tugged at my clothes) lasts only 13 seconds. However, to quote the insightful liner notes by the musicologist Philippe Albéra: ’Within these miniature spaces, expressivity – as if through a process of crystallization – is pushed to its utmost limits.’ Collected by the composer, the texts have been extracted from Kafka’s letters, diaries and notebooks; shards that together form a mosaic at times sardonic, absurd, lyrical or humourous. Kurtág’s ability to convey a wide range of situations and emotions transforms each fragment into a vision of dreamlike intensity, where the real becomes surreal, and Albéra finds a symbol of the spirit of Kurtág’s music in the 16th fragment, Kein Rückkehr, and Kafka’s aphorism: ‘From a certain point on, there is no going back. That is the point to reach.’ The often highly virtuosic and demanding score is here interpreted by the soprano Caroline Melzer and the violinist Nurit Stark, both performers with a strong commitment to contemporary music who collaborated with composers such as Aribert Reimann, Sofia Gubaidulina and Viktor Suslin.
 
  • STUDIO QUALITY
    File formats included in STUDIO QUALITY
    • FLAC 24-bit Stereo
    • FLAC 24-bit Surround 5.0
    • FLAC 16-bit Stereo
    • MP3 Stereo
  • CD QUALITY | MP3
    File formats included in CD QUALITY | MP3
    • FLAC 16-bit Stereo
    • MP3 Stereo
$ 11.66
 
Extra material for download
 
 
  Composer: Kurtág, György
  Kafka-Fragmente for soprano and violin, Op.24 (1985–87), 1. Teil 14:30
01 1. Die Guten gehn im gleichen Schritt… 01:04 $ 0.22 USD
02 2. Wie ein Weg im Herbst 00:36 $ 0.13 USD
03 3. Verstecke 00:26 $ 0.09 USD
04 4. Ruhelos 00:22 $ 0.08 USD
05 5. Berceuse I 01:01 $ 0.21 USD
06 6. Nimmermehr (Excommunicatio) 01:18 $ 0.27 USD
07 7. „Wenn er mich immer frägt“ 00:23 $ 0.08 USD
08 8. Es zupfte mich jemand am Kleid 00:13 $ 0.05 USD
09 9. Die Weißnäherinnen 00:21 $ 0.07 USD
10 10. Szene am Bahnhof 00:17 $ 0.06 USD
11 11. Sonntag, den 19. Juli 1910 (Berceuse II) (Hommage à
Jeney)
01:10 $ 0.25 USD
12 12. Meine Ohrmuschel… 00:15 $ 0.05 USD
13 13. Einmal brach ich mir das Bein (Chassidischer Tanz) 00:37 $ 0.13 USD
14 14. Umpanzert 00:23 $ 0.08 USD
15 15. Zwei Spazierstöcke (Authentisch-plagal) 00:46 $ 0.16 USD
16 16. Keine Rückkehr 01:04 $ 0.22 USD
17 17. Stolz (1910/15. November, Zehn Uhr) 00:43 $ 0.15 USD
18 18. Träumend hing die Blume (Hommage à Schumann) 02:21 $ 0.49 USD
19 19. Nichts dergleichen 01:10 $ 0.25 USD
 
  Kafka-Fragmente for soprano and violin, Op.24 (1985–87), 2. Teil
20 1. Der wahre Weg (Hommage-message à Pierre Boulez) 07:22 $ 1.55 USD
 
  Kafka-Fragmente for soprano and violin, Op.24 (1985–87), 3. Teil 14:00
21 1. Haben? Sein? 00:43 $ 0.15 USD
22 2. Der Coitus als Bestrafung (Canticulum Mariae Magdalenae) 00:29 $ 0.10 USD
23 3. Meine Festung 00:52 $ 0.18 USD
24 4. Schmutzig bin ich, Milena… 01:50 $ 0.39 USD
25 5. Elendes Leben (Double) 00:17 $ 0.06 USD
26 6. Der begrenzte Kreis 00:33 $ 0.12 USD
27 7. Ziel, Weg, Zögern 00:43 $ 0.15 USD
28 8. So fest 00:52 $ 0.18 USD
29 9. Verstecke (Double) 01:26 $ 0.30 USD
30 10. Penetrant jüdisch 00:20 $ 0.07 USD
31 11. Staunend sahen wir das grosse Pferd 01:59 $ 0.42 USD
32 12. Szene in der Elektrischen (1910: „Ich bat im Traum die
Tänzerin Eduardowa, sie möchte doch den Csárdás noch
einmal tanzen…“)
03:56 $ 0.83 USD
 
  Kafka-Fragmente for soprano and violin, Op.24 (1985–87), 4. Teil 19:39
33 1. Zu spät (22. Oktober 1913) 03:44 $ 0.78 USD
34 2. Eine lange Geschichte 01:03 $ 0.22 USD
35 3. In memoriam Robert Klein 00:41 $ 0.14 USD
36 4. Aus einem alten Notizbuch 01:19 $ 0.28 USD
37 5. Leoparden 02:13 $ 0.47 USD
38 6. In memoriam Joannis Pilinszky 02:46 $ 0.58 USD
39 7. Wiederum, wiederum 01:42 $ 0.36 USD
40 8. Es blendete uns die Mondnacht … (...a porban kúszó
kígyó-páros: Márta, meg én)
06:11 $ 1.30 USD
 
  Album total 58:08
ComposerKurtág, György
ViolinStark, Nurit
SopranoMelzer, Caroline

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